1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in electrical circuits, and more particularly to improvements in voltage multiplier circuits or the like.
2. Relevant Background
In many applications, developing a source of voltage that has been multiplied from a lower supply voltage is desired. As pressures have increased for lower and lower supply voltages, the need for such voltage multipliers has likewise increased. One solution that has been widely used is the use of a charge pump that can produce, for example, a 10 volt output supply level from a 5 volt input supply level.
Circuits have also been proposed that use a capacitor to receive a switched input voltage, and an inverter to apply a higher voltage to the low side, or plate, of the capacitor thereby boosting the voltage on the high side, or plate, of the capacitor. The boosted voltage is then transferred via a rectifier or the like to an output capacitor on which the boosted voltage is maintained. Such circuits, however, are generally single stages, or, when multiple stages are employed, the stages are generally merely cascaded together. The result of such cascaded circuits is that the starting voltage is merely added to the output voltage of the preceeding stage for each additional stage.
What is needed is a voltage multiplier circuit that can produce a multiplied voltage three or more times larger than an input voltage, using essentially the same number and type of parts as the aforementioned cascaded voltage multiplying circuits.